ROMAN SCHOOL WORKSHOP

A JOURNEY THROUGH ROMAN BRITAIN IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR SCHOOL!

Welcome to Roman School Workshop, bringing the history of Roman Britain alive in your primary school with a fun and exciting timeline-based visit from a Roman auxilliary during his 25 year quest for Roman citizenship, from cold nights spent on Hadrian's wall in 150ad, to long days marching and witnessing the legendary Roman Testudo (Tortoise) fighting formation in action, to finally fighting the Pict revolt with the faithful Roman Pilum spear.

This is then followed by a look at the day-to-day life of a Roman soldier in our 'Roman soldier's life' activity, with a detailed examination of a soldier's kit. This also includes a uniquie Roman artefact sorting task, where pupils handle genuine 1800 yr old Roman artefacts such as rings, brooches, belt buckles and pottery.

Planned from the ground up with the new 2014 National Curriculum for History in mind, this full day Roman school workshop covers all the statutory content from the 'Roman Empire and its impact on Britain' primary school topic, including Claudius' invasion, Boudica's revolt, Hadrian's wall and much more besides to truly extend the topic and bring it alive for your pupils.

Starting with an all important interactive timeline, our hero (Mr B, a qualified and experienced primary school teacher :) will take pupils through the major dates of the Roman occupation of Britain, from Julius Caesar's failed invasion of 54BC to the end of Roman rule in 410AD, in a series of fun activities and acting opportunities to consolidate pupils' exisiting knowledge

and also introduce new and interesting facts.

This continues with an explanation of the Roman 'Lorica Segmentata' armour and ends with an opportunity for all pupils to try the armour and the helmet on to feel the weight and have their picture taken.

In this session, pupils are also introduced to many other items of a Roman soldier's kit such as 'hard tack', the almost indestructible biscuit that was still in use by British soldiers in the First World War!

MARCHING WITH 'INTENTE' AND A ROMAN TORTOISE!

Our Roman school workshop then continues with some marching Roman-style! After some initial instruction, pupils are split into mini 'Legios' and given a set of Latin marching commands to deliver to their friends, including the infamous 'Testudo' (tortoise) formation!

THROWING SPEARS IN OUR WORKSHOP GRAND FINALE!

Finally, in a fitting ending to what we are sure will have been a fantastically memorable Roman school workshop, pupils are taught about the history behind the famous 'Pilum', the Roman spear designed to bend on impact so it couldn't be thrown back!

Two of these were carried by each Roman legionary and they were the machine gun of their age, offering a quickly accessible ranged weapon to cause immediate destruction and panic in the front ranks of the enemy.

Pupils then take turns to throw our safe foam-covered training pila (i.e. four of them) at our hessian targets which are much more suited to a primary school as opposed to a barbarian battlefield. That said, the pupils seem to find the challenge equally as exciting in this challenging but brilliantly fun finale to a most excellent workshop.

All content on this site is either copyrighted as the intellectual property of Balestra School Sport Ltd, which may not be reproduced without permission, and images and content outside this is otherwise understood to be in the public domain.